ISHB recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, Dr. Lewis Lancaster, for a three-part interview, where we explored Dr. Lancaster's personal life, his family, upbringing, and academic journey. We also invited Dr. Lancaster to give his thoughts on Humanistic Buddhism and what the future of Buddhist research looks like. The interviews were conducted by ISHB Research Team members, Fong Sam, Mandy Zhang, and Wenwen Zhou.
About Dr. Lancaster:
Dr. Lewis Lancaster is Emeritus Professor of the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served as President, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair of the dissertation committee at University of the West since 1992.
In addition to authoring over 75 articles and numerous books including Prajnaparamita and Related Systems, The Korean Buddhist Canon, Buddhist Scriptures, Early Ch’an in China and Tibet, and Assimilation of Buddhism in Korea, Dr. Lancaster founded the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative to use the computer-based technology to map the spread of Buddhism from the remote past to the present. He was a key figure in the creation of descriptive catalogue and digitization of the Korean Buddhist Canon.